Le carnaval de Venise

Le carnaval de Venise (English: The Carnival of Venice) is a comédie-lyrique in a prologue and three acts by the French composer André Campra.

It was first performed on 20 January 1699 by the Académie royale de musique in the Salle du Palais-Royal in Paris.

Campra dedicated the work to Louis, Grand Dauphin, heir apparent to the French throne, who enjoyed it and had it staged again in February 1711, shortly before his death.

In one critic's assessment: "In a magisterial act of conflation, this composer blends the styles of Lully, Lalande, Monteverdi and Cavalli and manages also to foreshadow Handel and Rameau.

He dreamt up a multi-hued score, capable of recapturing in Paris both the carnival spirit in general and that of the legendary Venice in particular.

Jorge Lavelli directed and the cast included Christiane Eda-Pierre, Martine Dupuy, Bruce Brewer, and Roger Soyer.

Vocalists included Salomé Haller, Marina De Liso, Andrew Foster-Williams, Alain Buet, Mathias Vidal, Sarah Tynan, Blandine Staskiewicz, and Luigi De Donato.

Then for some reason long buried by the sand of time, the last act is about Orpheus and his journey to Hades to recover Eurydice.

Minerva descends to take part in the celebration and is shocked by the state of things.

Music, dance, painting and architecture appear with their escorts and construct a magnificent theater.

Minerva invites a choir to celebrate a glorious monarch and unveils a stage presentation of the carnival in Venice.

The Salle des Réduits (discounts), where gambling will take place during the Carnival.

A square in Venice, encircled by magnificent palaces, on which canals full of gondolas converge.

Léandre suggests that they flee by boat during the theater's presentation of the fable of Orpheus and the grand ball that follows.